some evil people just need a hug
by past is today
Summary: Jason Grace is the new guy at high school and Nico Di Angelo get's hooked into giving him a tour. Through out his time at that school Jason meets many new friends, like beautiful Piper and crazy Leo but he can't stop wondering why someone as young as Nico would seem to depressed. He decides to investigate.
1. first meeting Nico

Jason hated new schools. He had had way too many of them in the last little while, and as he looked over this one he tried to look on the bright side. It wasn't as big as the other schools he had been to, and he had heard that it was a pretty relaxed place. Maybe this place would accept him. Sighing Jason hoisted his backpack up on his shoulder and walked up the steps to the big red brick building, where a teacher was waiting for him to show him around.

"Are you, Jason?" The teacher asked smiling at him and held out his hand. "I'm Mr. Blofis" Jason almost flinched when he heard that name. Ouch that was not a good last name but he suppressed that urge, not wanting to hurt Mr. Bofis's feelings and took the extended hand shaking firmly. The justamary jolt of accidental electricity flowed out of Jason's hand and Mr. Blofis let go quickly.

"I'm the school principal, so I thought I'd come greet you." Blofis said trying to subtly wipe his stinging fingers on his shirt. "However I'm too busy to show you around I'm afraid. I'll get a student to do it. In fact..."

Mr. Blofis trailed off and looked around for something. Jason wasn't sure what, there weren't any students out here. At least not that he had seen and they weren't exactly places to hide along the shear exterior of the building and the small shrubs. Then Mr. Blofis looked up.

"Nico Di Angelo, how many times do you have to be told to stay off the roof!" suddenly there was a scuffling on the one story canopy over the door and a teenager wearing all black dropped down from it. Landing with bent knees and no wobbling to speak of like he had had plenty of practice doing that. "Shouldn't you be in class?" Mr. Blofis asked sternly.

"Mrs. Stanly won't let me back in her room after I killed her gold fish last week." The guy, Nico answered scowling and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"You didn't kill the gold fish, Nico." Mr Blofis's answer was patient as if they had already had this conversation. "You were sitting next to it and it died, you never touched it how could you have killed it?" Nico shrugged and didn't answer. Jason didn't know what to think of that interaction. Why would Nico have thought he had killed the goldfish if he had only been sitting next to it. Jason had no idea so he brushed it off.

"Well since you're not in class anyway you can show Jason around the school. He's a new student here starting late." Blofis said with a forced smile. He stood still for a moment then stepped toward Nico and reached out as if to put a hand on Nico's shoulder but he stepped back as Blofis stepped forward and Blofis gave up. "I'll talk to Mrs. Stanly." He said in a soft voice before Smiling at Jason one more time and waving to them both as he walked back into the school.

"Jason what?" Jason started even though he had only been looking away from Nico for a moment he had already almost forgotten he was there.

"Huh?" Jason asked awkwardly.

"Jason what?" Nico asked again sounding impatient. "What's your last name, you heard mine it's, Di Angelo."

"Oh umm, Grace, Jason Grace." Jason felt like an idiot for his pause, gods he could be so awkward sometimes.

"Huh, well Grace." Nico said managing to make Jason's last name sound almost like a taunt. He was looking Jason in the eye and for some reason Jason was having a hard time meeting Nico's dark stare. "Let's get moving." he turned and marched up the steps not looking back to check if Jason was following because, of course, Jason did.

They walked into the lobby, it had three halls branching off from it in a T shape and a staircase going up. Jason was surprised to see, a television in the right hand corner by the door. "This is the lobby obviously." Nico said sounding bored. "The Tv was a class gift from some year before I came to this school. So are the murals underneath the stairs."

Jason hadn't noticed the murals underneath the stairs, and when he did he was quite excited about it. He had heard that this school was pretty artsy, he hoped that students had painted it! Not that he was going to be going into the arts programs here, just he liked art and would like to know more artists. He would have studied the paintings longer but Nico was already moving on.

"Down that hall" he said Pointing to the left. "Are the special help rooms, the office, student services, help for kids with learning disabilities." Jason made a note of that, he would probably need to go talk to them about his ADD and Dyslexia before long. "Down there." Nico said gesturing to the other hall. "Are the academic type things, English classes, Religious studies, history etc." He gave his wrist a unenthusiastic twill before beckoning Jason to follow him down the middle hall.

Jason wished Nico would be more in depth about the tour but he wasn't quite brave enough to ask any questions. There was just something about the guy, maybe his black clothes, maybe the leather jacket, maybe the bulge in his pocket that looked suspiciously like it might be a knife that did not make Jason feel safe. He would just ask a more friendly looking student about it later and follow along for now.

Nico continued to the school, explaining that the middle hall was the math hall which half way down split again into a four way crossroads, the left fork going to the drama hall, and the right to the cafeteria. The middle hall continued after the gym as the shop hall with wood shops, metal shops, car shops and a couple rather out of place visual arts classes. The middle hall ended in a another hall which housed tech classes and photography. The library was tucked in the right side of the right hall, and another staircase up as well as a door outside at the end of the left hall. Nico took Jason up that explaining that the upstairs floor was shaped like an H with the psychology classes taking place in the first line (the one they were in), the second, language classes and music rooms in the horizontal part of the H and the final vertical one being cooking classes.

"Any questions?" Nico asked though it didn't really sound like a question and Jason knew Nico didn't want him to ask any. So Jason didn't, he shook his head feeling completely lost. It must of showed because Jason could see Nico struggling. He obviously didn't want to care that Jason had no idea what was going on but Jason got the impression that he did. Obviously the caring part won because after a minute Nico sighed and rubbed his hands over the bag's under his eyes that Jason hadn't noticed before.

"Do you have your schedule already?" Nico asked without looking up at Jason. "I'll show you where your classes are." Jason felt a surge of relief. Obviously Nico wasn't such a bad guy and as Jason dug his scheduled out of his bag he couldn't help but wonder what made Nico act like he was. Jason handed the paper to Nico.

"You're two grades higher than me." Nico commented dryly. That shocked Jason, maybe it was just how dark Nico was, but Jason had thought they must be that same age but if Nico was two grades lower than his grade 12, Nico, must be max fifteen years old. However Jason couldn't help feel a little grateful they wouldn't have any classes together.

"Okay so first semester you have metal shop, English, French and gym." Nico shook his head, Jason wasn't sure why. "Okay mister academics let's find you your classrooms. French will be up here so we'll get to that one first" Nico said before glancing down at the paper one more time and smirking. "Oh and I think we might share a gym class."

* * *

I own nothing!


	2. First meeting Piper

Jason blanched when Nico mentioned that they had the same gym class. "Why would you be in a grade 12 gym class?" Jason spluttered finally when Nico had already moved on and was showing Jason where the French class was. Nico seemed surprised, though it was a very subtle surprise. All of Nico's emotions seemed muted, almost dead, it was a bit creepy, then he smiled and as Jason had thought Nico was creepy before, he was terrifying now. If Jason had been a bit more of a coward he might have run.

"The younger grades couldn't handle me." Nico said in voice that would have put a moonless night to shame. Jason shivered but reminded himself that Nico was helping him. He could have just left Jason to fend for himself and gone back to whatever he had been doing before but he was going out of his way to help. He couldn't be too bad of a guy so why was he pretending to be.

"You know where your French class is, the rest are downstairs." Nico said walking off quickly enough that Jason had to hurry to keep up. That didn't match up either. All of the Goth kids Jason had known before had slouched around kinda slowly as if making a point of not being in a rush. Nico had the hunch but that was different too, more defensive.

Jason kept puzzling over it as Nico helped Jason find the rest of his classes. It was a good thing he had because it turned out Jason's English class was an exception to the hall rules, and took place in what Nico had pointed out as the 'help hall'. By the time they were done the second period bell was ringing and it was time to get to classes.

"Are you gonna go to class?" Jason asked Nico. He was suspicious that Nico had just been playing hooky first period and wouldn't go. Jason didn't know why he cared but he asked anyway. Nico seemed to resent the question but he answered anyway.

"Ya, I'm going my biology teacher doesn't have any class pets, so he still lets me in the room." Nico smirked and then turned away walking quickly away through the crowds. Jason tried to keep up for the part of the way to class they had in common, but Nico moved like a ghost through the crowd and Jason lost him quickly.

Sighing Jason slowed down and headed at a more leisurely pace through the crowds up to his french class. He was still there before the bell and found a seat near the middle of the class and against the wall. He hoped he could just sit quietly and think, get a handle on this class and judge how hard it would be but no such luck.

"Bonjour." A girl's voice greeted him as she slipped into the desk next to his. "Je m'appelle Piper. Qui êtes-vous?" Her accent was something most teachers would be jealous of. As he looked up to respond he realized she was someone anyone would be jealous of. She was gorgeous, copper skinned and straight teeth bared in a dazzling grin. Her hair was choppy and cut badly but somehow it looked like it could be the next model look on her, most dazzling though was definitely her eyes, the opposite of Nico's hers new hard to look away from.

"Bonjour?" She said again waving her hand in front of his face and he realized he had probably been staring dumbly for way longer than was polite. "Se n'est pas bonnes manner de regard fixe." She said disapprovingly. He wasn't very good at French, but he got the message and looked away awkwardly.

"Pardon" Jason said looking away, it was close to the only word in French he knew because it sounded just like a word in English. He tried to make his accent sound at least a little like hers but the result was laughable and that's exactly what she did, laugh.

Jason hated his pale skin as it betrayed the blood racing to his face to the world. He looked down awkwardly hoping the other student filing into the room wouldn't notice.

"C'est bon." She assured him when she was done laughing and then asked again. "Qui êtes-vous?"

"Jason." He muttered still awkward and not wanting to embarrass himself by trying any more French. She nodded and opened her mouth, probably to say something more complicated in French that he wouldn't understand, but the teacher called the class to order then. From the look she was giving Piper Jason and been right and the teachers were jealous of her.

Piper winked at him and then turned her attention to the teacher looking as charming as and politician until the teacher seemed assuaged and turned her attention to the bored writing her name and talking about the course. Then Piper reached in her desk and scribbled on a piece of paper waiting for the right moment to slip it onto Jason's desk.

_You're new here aren't you?_ The paper read, in English this time to Jason's relief

_Ya I am. Just started today._ Jason scribbled back wishing his writing was as pretty as Pipers. He was even more careful about passing it back then she had been. He had never really passed notes in class and he really didn't want to get caught doing something wrong on his first day.

_I thought so I would have noticed you. Do you wanna sit with me at lunch today? Everyone can use a friend on their first day at a new school._

It was really nice of her to offer, so even though he felt a bit awkward about agreeing to sit with this beautiful girl he didn't know, he supposed he would have to sit with someone he didn't know anyway. It might as well be a beautiful girl.

_Ya sure. Thanks._ He wrote back and she smiled at him sliding the paper back into her desk now that that was settled. Jason smiled back and turned his attention to the teacher, she was going over basic sayings in french, most of which even Jason knew. He zoned out pretty quickly deciding nothing important would happen today and before he knew it the lunch bell was ringing, Piper was up before him, hooking her arm through his and pulling him to his feet.

"I brought a packed lunch, do we need to go to the caf for you or can we just stop by lockers and head outside? It's a nice day I think we should take advantage of it." Jason nodded and told her he had packed a lunch and it was still in his bag because he didn't have a locker before letting himself get swept up in her motion. It seemed like she was trying to get them out of the school as soon as possible but when he started noticing the eyes following her, he started to understand why and did what he could to help them get out faster.

Once they were out of the school Piper visibly relaxed, unthreaded her arm from Jason's and shoved her hands in her sweater pockets smiling.

"Sorry about rushing us out like that, this is a pretty good school but there are still some creeps about." She said leading him to a spot on the far side of the, mostly unused, school yard where there was a cluster of trees and bushes and behind it, so you could hardly see the school. "I'm afraid I dragged you along for a sort of selfish reason." She said smiling apologetically. "you look strong enough that if people thought we're dating they wouldn't be likely to pick a fight with you over me."

"That's completely fine." Jason said sincerely, he had almost wanted to pick a fight with those people with the way they were looking at her. Even if he didn't know her and they weren't dating it was disrespectful. "I'm glad I could help and I'll do it again if you want. Well, if it makes you feel safe I mean." He trailed off, he thought he might have just sounded like he was agreeing to date her or something, but she didn't seem to take it that way thank goodness.

"Thanks that's sweet of you." She said smiling at him as she opened her lunch and took out a saran-wrapped pb&j sandwich, Jason had a ham and for a while they just sat eating in a half comfortable half awkward silence.

It was quiet enough that Jason hear a girl shouting "come on Nico!" from across the yard and looked up to see a dark skinned girl with cinnamon hair pulling Nico along by his wrist. It surprised Jason how little Nico seemed to mind, in fact it may have been a trick of the distance but Nico even seemed to be smiling. In a moment of curiosity Jason turned to Piper and asked.

"What do you know about Nico Di angelo?" Jason knew she might not know anything, but she had been here longer than him and that she had written 'I would have noticed you' in her note hinted that she payed attention to the comings and goings of people at this school.

"Nico?" Piper echoed once she had swallowed a bite of her sandwich. "Not much. No one really knows much about, Nico, I know he freaks out when anyone touches him, and the only person he's close to is Hazel. Oh, and he has a violent streak that's nearly gotten him expelled a few times. But I think that's all anyone knows about him, presumably hazel knows more but she doesn't talk about things he wouldn't want her to." Jason nodded, most of things he had already known or could have guessed"

"Why is he so close to, Hazel?" He asked, partially curious partially trying to keep up conversation.

"They're half siblings I think. Share the same dad though they don't look like it." Jason nodded again. They didn't look like they shared a father, but one parent could make all the difference in appearance.

"Why so curious about, Nico?" Piper asked, her turn to be curious.

"I don't know." Jason said shrugging "He showed me around the school this morning and it kinda seemed like he was pretending to be scarier then he really was." Piper laughed.

"I think you're the first person to think that, most people are under the impression he's toning it down for school." She paused and thought for a moment. "But you might be right, after all he's very good with Hazel and from here I've seen him convince a couple cats to warm up to him and that's quite a feat. Maybe you'll have to find out about him yourself, maybe he needs someone to care." Piper had gotten a bit of a faraway look as she talked like she was looking into something that wasn't there but then her vision snapped back to Jason and she smiled. "But keep me posted okay? You've got me curiouse about the kid now too."


	3. First meeting Leo

Jason had a lot of fun eating lunch with Piper. At first he had been a bit worried that she was one of those pretty girls that had just picked him up because he was handsome, but by the end of lunch he felt guilty for even thinking of it. Piper was nothing like that, she felt uncomfortable in her beauty because it was all some people could see. They couldn't see who she really was passed her looks which is why she dressed so plainly and cut her hair like that. She was TRYING to downgrade, and Jason felt like he had fallen into that when they had first, but now he knew that she was much more than her beauty. She was gentle and smart to say the very least about her and Jason couldn't wait to learn more about her.

"Can we sit together again tomorrow?" He asked as they heard the bell and started to pack up their bags, he did his best not to sound as pathetically hopeful as he really was though Piper didn't seem fooled.

"Why not." She said smiling at him.

"You seem pretty cool, I'd like to get to know you better." Jason was greatly relieved and smiled as they waved goodbye heading to opposite ends of the school.

He didn't realize until he was walking into his metal shop class that even though he and Piper had been talking for almost an hour, she had hardly told him anything about herself. Not even her last name. It seemed like Nico wasn't the only mystery at this school.

He got lost once on his way to the shop and by the time he got in everyone else was working, they must have been given a project in the time Jason had missed by starting a couple weeks late. Jason cursed in his head hoping he wasn't too far behind.

"Yo, blond boy!" He heard a call from close to him and looked up assuming he was the blond boy. "Could you hand me that?" the guy asked jerking his head at a tool that Jason didn't know the name of yet (it was his first time taking the course). He was wearing goggles and a hard hat so Jason couldn't really tell anything about him, except that he was smaller than Jason and had darker skin, but not as dark as Hazels.

"Uh sure." Jason said picking it up and handing it to the kid who was holding a piece, of what might have been the starting of a metal sculpture, on as it did it's best to fall off. So that's why he couldn't get the thing himself.

"Thanks dude." The other guy said and lined up the tool with the edge of the metal piece. Jason stepped back as the thing started to emit sparks and the guy used it to weld the piece into place, holding it there for a minute and then stepping back. Jason noticed that the guy wasn't wearing gloves.

"You're not wearing any gloves." Jason said then feeling stupid for stating the obvious he added. "Did you burn yourself? I mean you're supposed to wear gloves using tools like that right."

"Nahh dude I've got thick skin." The guy said grinning in a way that seemed just a bit crazy to Jason. "I've got thick skin." He pushed up his goggles onto his forehead revealing mischievous dark eyes, he looked at Jason more closely. "Hey weren't you hanging out with beauty queen?"

"Umm you mean Piper?" Jason asked a little awkwardly.

"Ya dude, me and beauty queen are totally tight though sometimes she gets sick of me." He laughed like that was the funniest thing ever.

Jason could see why this guy would get annoying, well more tiring, he seemed to work at a million miles a minute, as if to prove that the guy started pulling bits and pieces from the pockets of his overalls and tinkering with them as he stared at Jason. It was starting to make Jason uncomfortable, like he was being analyzed like a machine.

"I don't think, Piper would like being called, Beauty queen." Jason commented trying to break the uncomfortable silence.

"She doesn't." he smiled crookedly without blinking or halting his stair. Jason didn't know how to feel about that answer. He suspected it was used as a term of endearment but if Piper didn't like it, and this guy kept using it that was a lot like teasing. Jason was about to point this out when the guy broke into a wide grin and exclaimed "Well if beauty queen likes you, you're okay with me."

He didn't ask Jason's name or tell Jason his, just started acting like they'd known each other for years. He swept Jason along in a flurry of movement, showing Jason around, introducing him to people and showing him how things worked. Not even the teacher could get a word in edgewise, let alone tell Jason what the project was. It wasn't until almost the end of the class after Jason had spent roughly forty minutes following this person around, and twenty listening to him talk about the metal dragon he was making that, Jason managed to ask.

"Sorry you never told me what your name is."

"Oops! It's Leo, I guess I don't know yours either." Leo seemed really surprised by this and smacked his own forehead. "Sorry ADHD to the max."

"It's Jason." Jason thought that short answered were best with Leo because he could fill the rest of the conversation, and he did. Leo really must be ADHD to the max because Jason had been diagnosed with it too, but he was nowhere near that bad. Sure he got distracted easily, it was happening right now with Leo still talking to him and Jasons thought somewhere else but he was not that hyper. Maybe it was just because he worked out and did sports to redirect some of his energy. From the look of Leo he didn't do that at all he was skinny.

Jason was glad when the bell for final period rang and he could say goodbye to hyperactive Leo. He didn't doubt that he would talk to Leo again in that class, and they would probably become friends but just as he had suspected after a while he got tiring. Now all Jason had left was his gym class and he would have survived his first day of school!

He had already managed to forget who he shared his gym class with, until he walked in and saw Nico wearing black shorts and a skull T-shirt leaning against the far wall of the gym. Jason paused for a moment as he remembered what he had been told about younger gym classes "not being able to handle Nico" before he hurried to the boys change room to put on his own blue shorts and white T-shirt. He was nervous about finding out what Nico had meant by that but that but kind of excited too, maybe Jason would finally find someone his match in sports, though it seemed unlikely it would come in the form of that scrawny kid.


	4. One-on-One

Jason changed into his gym clothes quickly before heading out. He knew he didn't have to hurry as every gym class seemed to have at least twenty minutes of free time before the class was called to order, but he wanted to talk to Nico.

Nico was standing in the exact same place he had been what Jason had gone into the change room. Obviously not interested in the games of bump and badminton going on in the gym around him. If Nico hadn't been there Jason might have joined one of the games, but Nico looked so lonely. He was obviously trying not to with his arms closed and headphones on by Jason. He could practically feel him reaching out wishing someone would talk to him, or maybe ask him to play too, so Jason did.

He walked over to Nico and stopped in front of him waiting of him to take of his headphones. Finally he seemed to notice Jason was there and turned of the music though he didn't take them off.

"What do you want, Grace?" He asked not sounding very friendly at all. Jason didn't let it put him off.

"Do you wanna play one on one?" He asked not smiling. He didn't so much ask as challenge, he was pretty sure Nico would turn down an invitation, but who turned down a challenge?

"In what game, Grace? Be more specific." Nico said in a bored tone, but at least he hadn't shot Jason down. Jason took encouragement from that.

"Badminton?" It was a question, 'if you want to maybe?' Jason kicked himself for sounding unsure assuming that now Nico would shut him down and tune him out, but to his surprise Nico pushed off the wall.

"Why not." He said with a shrug moving his headphones to rest around his neck. "They keep the rackets and birdies over here."

"Okay." Jason said amiably following Nico into a store room where Nico chose a dark green racket, the closest colour to black, and Jason chose a light purple, closest to blue.

Jason grabbed a birdie from their box under the racket rack and they headed back into the gym. Jason could feel eyes on the two of them, he wasn't sure whether they were wondering about him because he was new or wondering at Nico for leaving, what Jason was sure was his usual position against the wall, maybe both. Nico seemed to know they were being watched to because he seemed to turn into himself even more. He didn't back out though, and both of them were very aware of their audience as they got into position across the gym from each other.

Jason let Nico set the distance between them, and he was surprised, but not alarmed by how far it was. Jason could deal with this, just most people found it easier at a closer range.

Jason had the birdie so he served, sending it easily over the space between them Nico hit it back. No surprise there, Jason had made it a easy shot. What was a shock was the ferocity that he hit it back with, enough that it sails passed Jason and scored Nico a point.

"Good shot." Jason said making a mental note not to take it too easy on Nico, Jason hated losing but he could at least let Nico think it was close. Nico didn't answer Jason just stood quietly waiting for the game to continue. Jason thought he seemed a bit less self conscious now.

"Your point your serve." Jason said retrieving the birdie and batting it back to Nico who caught it and served. This time Jason had to jog backwards to catch it, he sent it back and Nico lunged sideways to get it.

Jason quickly realized that if he wanted to win he couldn't go easy on Nico at all. In fact he was giving Jason a run for his money and by the ten minute mark they were both panting. They were completely focused on the game and still by half hour mark the score was only 3:4. 3 for Nico, 4 for Jason. Even if they were only playing to five, not a win for either of them.

Nico seemed to be just as determined to win a Jason was, and as the game stretched to forty minutes they were both sweating and maneuvering desperately to try not to miss. Despite Nicos effort it was Jason who win after forty-five minutes. As they stood stare at each other and panting, slowly, an applause started to break out around the gym. Remembering they weren't alone they looked around to find themselves surrounded by cheating students, even the teacher was clapping.

She had never started the class, so that everyone could watch them play. Jason felt pleased and mildly flattered, but as Nico bolted for the changing room, Jason guessed he didn't feel the same way. Jason would have followed Nico but that was when students started to surge forth and congratulate him on the game, ask him where he learned to play, pester him to join the badminton team. It was probably for the best anyway, Jason thought as he was swept up, a confrontation in the locker room would have just been awkward.

* * *

I wrote this entire thing on my phone, i think I deserve some props for commitment at least. I've been crazy busy recently (hence writing on my phone) but I'm doing my best to keep posting, I won't make any promises cause those always backfire but I'm trying.


	5. Jason's mom

Nothing got done in that gym class, there was only about a half an hour left of school by the time Jason and Nico's game finished and no one seemed to want to do anything but talk about it. Jason wondered why everyone was swarming him but no one had gone after Nico to talk to him about it. Jason put it down to the fact that Nico probably wouldn't want them to though high schoolers weren't usually known for their consideration of others feelings.

It wasn't until one girl asked "How were you even brave enough to challenge that kid, he's so scary!" Jason was about to laugh when he looked around and noticed other people nodding.

"Oh come on he's not that scary." Jason said his smile wavering. Nico hadn't seemed that bad to him why were all of these people acting as if he was a serial killer?

"Dude he's plenty scary." One guy said sounding surprised that Jason didn't know this already. "No one knows anything about him, he just shows up for school and then vanishes. He's been sent home for being caught carrying knives, Tom Jonson even said he's seen Nico practicing with a sword. But when teachers try to call his parents no one ever picks up, it's like they don't actually exist." Now Jason understood, this was just a basic fear of the unknown, they didn't know anything about Nico so they were scared of him. Jason refused to fall into that trap so he brushed off the stories saying that he was sure Nico wasn't that bad and carried on.

By the time the bell rang the people in his class had finally lost interest in the game though Jason was sure it would be the subject of inflated rumer in the school for at least the next two weeks. Still as soon as the bell rand almost everyone hurried to the locker room, changed and left. Jason was in less of a hurry and by the time he went to the change room almost everyone had left, only two boys were still there and they left while he was pulling on his pants.

Once he was changed he left the change room through the back door into the hall and walked slowly to his locker. He kept an eye out for Piper or Leo or even Nico, someone he could spend time with to delay his having to go home. All of them must have left with the initial wave of students because he didn't see them. Instead he went to his mettle shop teacher using the project he hadn't gotten as a method of procrastination but once he knew that it was a assessment of how much you knew, just a make what you can, he had no excuse to stay any longer.

Hoisting his bag a bit higher on his shoulder he sighed and began the half hour walk back to his home. He tried to remember as he walked if they needed any groceries right now but he didn't think so as long as his mother hadn't got in any trouble or wrecked anything while he was away they should be fine. It was about four now he would get home by four thirty, if they eat at six he would have more than enough time to cook, again as long as she hadn't got in any trouble.

She had been a little excited last night about his first day at a new school, she hadn't woken up to see him off this morning but still he was a little worried that she would have tried to cook dinner for him or something. She couldn't cook to save her life as far as he could remember she never had, it had always been Thalia who looked after him but now that she was gone he was left to look after his mother. She had offered to take him with her of course but someone had to make sure their mother didn't poison herself or something.

As he approached their small house he realized that the yard was beginning to look a bit scruffy, the grass was longer then the rest of the neighborhood, he would have to cut it soon. From the outside it seemed promising that there hadn't been any trouble and he hoped that his mother had just spent the day watching tv and fantasizing about his faster coming back as she usually did. His hopes of that were dashed as he walked into the house and smelled something burning.

Dropping his bag in the hall he ran to the kitchen whipping a pot of the stove and took the lid off to look inside. He immediately regretted the decision as smoke billowed out and he started coughing. He put the lid back on and took the pot out to the back yard adding change the batteries in the smoke detector to his list of things to do because it hadn't even made a blip. He left the pot outside and went back in, if any animal wanted that they were welcome to it.

"Jason?" His mother had wondered into the kitchen wearing a bath robe, her hair was all teased up as it had been in her days as an actress and she was smiling at him in a distracted far away kind of way. "I made pasta." She said pointing at the stove where the pot had been without looking. She seemed proud of herself though and Jason didn't want her to know the mistake she had made so he smiled.

"Yes you did but it's not time to eat yet." He walked over to her and gently guided her out of the kitchen. "I'll make sure it stays warm and when dinner time comes around I'll just plate it up okay mom?" He led her to the couch in the living room and she sat down still smiling at him in that far away way.

"Okay." She said reaching up and patting his cheek gently her hands smelled like pine and lilies he breather in savoring the half memories of times when she had been a proper mother. "You're such a good boy. You wait until you're father and I get back to gather he'll be so happy with how well you've looked after me, much better than your sister."

Jason sighed he knew his mom and Thalia had never gotten along but he hated it when his mom said things like that. He resisted the urge to point out that Thalia had always been more of a mother to him than his real mother had. Hell the matron at the boarding school he'd gone to that everyone had called Lupa after the wolf had been more of a mother to him. But he held it in, smiled and nodded before going back into the kitchen.

He would make pasta and tomato sauce for dinner to let his mother keep believing she had made it though he hoped it wouldn't encourage her to do it again. He sighed as he found another pot, it was a bit to big because the proper sized one was in the back yard but it would do. He filled it with water from the tap and left it to boil, found the package of pasta on the counter where she had left it and started hunting for the ingredients to homemade pasta sauce. He had time and it was his first day at a new school, he might as well celebrate.


	6. Can I Help You?

A/N I tried to make this one longer because I had a request to, I hope you like it.

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The next morning Jason woke up, as usual at seven am. An hour and half before he had to get to school. He stretched, he didn't want to get out of bed. He had been up late trying to figure out what to do for his metal shop project and still hadn't gotten anything done. Still he only allowed himself five minutes of laying in bed before he made himself get up.

He got dressed as quietly as he could so as not to wake his mother, the more she slept the better, she couldn't get in any trouble then. It was still the beginning of fall, and warm so he dressed in a white T-shirt and jeans. His thoughts wandering, he wondered how that kid Nico wore black all the time. He seemed like the type who would, but that must have been murder in the summer. Jason shrugged to himself and headed downstairs, he put two slices of bread in the toaster and brushed his teeth in the bathroom sink while he waited for them to pop. It was better to do it down here when his mother was asleep upstairs because sometimes the running water woke her.

The first two pieces of toast popped and he put in two more. He made packed lunches for his mother too, even though she stayed home because she didn't always remember for herself. He thought tuna would be good today and began to mix the filling, putting in some parmesan cheese which both he and his mother liked but, leaving out pickle which he liked and she didn't. He would make hers first and then add some pickle to his own.

Once the two sandwiches were made he put one in a plastic bag and into his lunch, along with a small bag of cucumber slices, and a reusable water bottle. He left the other on a plate on the counter for his mother. That had only taken him about a half hour so he decided to sit down and have a bowl of cereal for he would just grab a banana or an apple to eat on the way to school, but now he had time. He took out a box of honey nut cheerios, he made a mental note to buy more because they were almost out and they were one thing his mother would usually eat without prompting.

He shook half of the cereal that was left into a bowl and poured milk into it, sitting down at the kitchen table to eat. He stared out the window at the house next to them and thought about how he hoped today would go. Mostly he just hoped Piper would want to sit with him at lunch again, it had been nice talking to her. After a while of thinking about how his time with her might go he was much more excited about going to school so he drank the rest of the milk out of his bowl, rinsed the dish, left it in the sink and left early.

He got to school at least fifteen minutes before school started and there was surprising amount of people around. At his last school almost everyone had rushed in at the last second. He didn't see Leo or Piper though, and he felt too awkward to approach anyone new. Maybe he should take this opportunity to go talk to someone about his learning disabilities but he didn't really know who to talk to. Nico had only shown him the hall it was in yesterday, not the room and Jason had been too stupid and shy to ask who was in charge of that. He would have to ask.

He was looking around for someone to ask when he spotted Nico himself sitting against the wall on the right see of the lobby, Jason hadn't even thought to look for him in his initial sweep of the hall because he just assumed Nico would show up late. Surved Jason right for stereotyping really.

"Nico." he said in greeting as he crossed the room, Nico jerked at the sound of his name as if he had been asleep and was just waking up. He looked up at Jason and seemed confused to see him.

"Do you need something Grace?" Nico asked sighing and standing up, he was wearing black still. His shirt was plain black today with no pattern, but it looked like he was wearing the same pants, that wasn't unusual even Jason did that sometimes.

"Ya actually." Jason said smiling and doing his best to seem friendly, "I was hoping you could show me where the office for people with learning disabilities is? I mean to help people with disabilities." he amended realizing the wording had been weird. "I mean you said there was one yesterday, but not exactly where it was and I think I need to talk to someone there." Jason had heard that some people with learning disabilities got bullied for it, but he had never been shy about admitting that he was dyslexic so he wasn't going to start now.

"Sure I can show you." Nico said shrugging. "I was just waiting for Hazel, and she won't be here for another five minutes or so anyway." Nico walked away down the hall and Jason walked with him. He was curious about Hazel, Piper had mentioned her too as the only person Nico was close to. He wondered why Hazel would be the exception.

"Who's Hazel?" Jason asked.

"She's my sister, though I don't know why you care." Jason was confused by that answer, he had seen Hazel and, she and Nico looked nothing alike. He supposed they had to be half siblings or maybe adopted? He would have asked more questions except Nico was already turning into a room on the left side of the hall.

"Miss. Blackwell?" Nico called softly looking around as Jason followed him in.

"Yep, back here." Came the response in a gruff female voice from a closed area at the back of the room, that Jason took to be an office inside the office. Weird. "You can come back Nico there's no other students around. Can I help you with anything?" her words were stream of consciousness with no real pauses. Jason supposed that for her to know Nico by voice Nico must have a learning disability too, he was glad he had chosen to ask Nico for help with this.

"I don't need anything, I was just showing a new student where this was. His name's Jason Grace and I'm guessing he has some things to talk to you about, so I'll leave now." Before Jason could subject, Nico had swept out of the room and was gone. Jason would have kind of liked Nico to stay and give a bit more of an introduction, but too late now. Jason thought the invitation to come back must apply to him as well so he walked hesitantly around to the side of the corded area, found an open door and went through it.

Miss. Blackwell was a tall older woman and she looked strong, more like a gym teacher or athlete than a help for people with disabilities. Jason had never figured out exactly what they were called. But she smiled at him.

"What do you need to talk to me about?" she asked a bit more loudly than necessary but he had a feeling that was how she always talked. She hooked another chair out with her ankle and gestured for him to sit which he did.

"Umm well it's just I have Dyslexia and ADHD, though that ones not too severe and I've needed help in all my other schools, so I thought I should come and talk to you about it so we can set that up." she nodded seeming quite pleased that he had come to her.

"You're self advocating, that's always good sometimes I have to track down new students about this stuff even if they know they need it. What sort of accommodations did you have at your last school?"

"Well mostly all I need it double time on tests and a quiet location to write them, though having a computer for classes that require note taking is very helpful because of course I have a hard time writing." he felt a bit awkward, but she didn't or pretended she didn't notice.

"Alright, I think we can set those up easily. Can you tell me the name of your last school so I can check with them about the IEP? Sorry Individualized education plan, it's what we call them here." He nodded glad he hadn't had to ask what IEP meant.

"I went to Lupercale, it was a private school but I did have an IEP there."

"Alright, private schools are a bit harder to get information from, but I'm sure we can do it. Why don't you come by again after school and I'll let you know it I've made any headway with that. Do you need any accommodations immediately?" He shook his head and stood assuming that it was over now. "Thanks for stopping by." She said smiling at him and reaching out her hand which he shook, she was as strong as she looked.

"Thanks for your help." He said leaving the room. With that done he went back to the lobby wondering if Nico would still be there. Nico wasn't, but while he had been busy Piper had arrived.

"Jason." She greeted smiling warmly as she walked up to him, her hips swaying in a very attractive way. He was pretty sure she would have put a stop to it if she had been aware of.

"Hey Piper." Jason said grinning like an idiot. "What class do you have first period?" He hadn't been in first period yesterday, so he was hanging on to the hope that they might have it together.

"I have English." Piper said rolling her eyes. "With Leo, I don't know if you've met Leo yet but he's not the type you want in any class you plan to learn in."

"Oh I've met him." Jason said laughing. "He's in my metal shop class after lunch. I have English first period too, maybe we'll all have it together." All he knew for sure was that Leo wasn't the best person to have in a English class, but Piper and Leo were the two friends he had at this school and he liked the idea of having them both in a class with him.

"We'll see, after all the bell's about to ring. Why don't we go to our lockers together to pick up our books? I haven't seen Leo yet but he's usually late." She was already walking away so he followed her.

"My locker is by the gym so it's closer and on the way to yours." Jason said feeling like whoever had assigned lockers had meant them to be friends. He didn't say it though, because he thought it would come out creepy or dispirit.

"Huh, it's like whoever assigned lockers wanted us to be friends." Piper said for him smiling crookedly. Jason's jaw almost dropped, Piper had said exactly what he had been thinking but from her t didn't seem creepy at all in fact it made him completely tongue tied.

"Uh ya." Was all he could say. Silently he started scolding himself he knew he was starting to crush on Piper, but he didn't think she would like that. He shouldn't do that, she just wanted a friend, she had said herself that she was sick of guys falling for her. He wasn't supposed to be one of them, especially only two days of knowing her.


	7. English Class

A/N I got a question asking if Percy and Annabeth will be in this story and the short answer is probably not. they may be in it in a very small capacity later on but in this particular AU I have them both classed as drop outs so as it's a high school AU they won't be in it much. And I know Annabeth is smart but because she's a run away I think she stopped school then and never rejoined, she just learns on her own and Percy don't put much value in education.

* * *

They collected their books from their lockers and headed back to the English class, it turned out they did have together. There was still no sign of Leo though; even when the bell rang there was still no sign of the curly haired boy, but there was also no sign of the lesson starting. The teacher was still sitting at his desk looking over some papers and no one else seemed to find this unusual, Piper kept talking to him, a girl with long nails in the corner was still playing a game on her laptop, and everyone else continued what they'd been doing.

It was five minutes after the bell rang when Leo burst into the room in the most over dramatic way Jason had ever seen and he couldn't help laughing. Leo grinned at Jason in his usual manic way, sauntered up to the teachers desk, and put down a late slip, and then turned back to the class still grinning.

"Okay the party can start now!" Leo exclaimed in a voice that was unnecessary loud considering the entire class had gone silent as soon as he waked in. Surprisingly as Leo walked over and took the empty desk behind Piper and Jason, the teacher actually did get up and start the lesson. Apparently he had been what they were waiting for, because after that the lesson continues as normal.

"Hey blonde super man." It took Jason a minute to figure out that Leo was talking to him and when he did he twisted in his chair half looking at leo half trying to pay attention to the teacher.

"I told you my name why are you calling me blonde super man?" Jason asked, a little miffed, he wasn't sure he liked that nickname.

"Well ya but I've forgotten it, and you look like a blond Clark Kent." Leo smiled crookedly, in a way that made Jason sure that Leo knew Jason didn't like the nickname and was going to keep using it anyway. Jason sighed and turned back to the teacher, he didn't think there was any point arguing with Leo and anyway this was not the place to do it.

Through the entire class Jason could hear small clicking and rustling sounds from behind him and he knew Leo must have been building again. He resisted the urge to turn around and watch and did a pretty good job paying attention to the teacher, until five minutes before the end of the lesson when a miniature helicopter flew up over Jason's head. Jason's jaw dropped as the little thing flew all the way across the room before hitting the wall.

"Abort mission! Abort mission!" Leo screeched rushing across the room and diving to catch the thing before it hit the ground. When he straightened up he looked a bit awkward to have everyone looking at him but he just grinned.

"Sorry teach." Leo said to the teacher "I guess inside is not the place to build miniature helicopters, I'll work on it more at lunch." Leo walked casually back to his desk and sat back down. Jason was a little impressed at how casually everyone had reacted, but even more impressed that Leo said he had built that little helicopter. Next time Jason caught Leo building he would have to pay more attention.

Since it was almost the end of class anyway, the teacher decided that the lesson would not be continued after the interruption and Jason immediately turned to Leo.

"Did you really build that thing?" Jason said looking more closely at the small helicopter. It was hard for him to distinguish the parts it was made out of, but they all seemed to be things that Leo could get away with keeping in his pockets.

"Ya man of course." Leo said rolling his eyes as if it was a stupid question, "I've got to do something with my hands during classes. It would have been better if I had rubber bands, but I'm not allowed to have those in class because they think I'll just shoot them at people. Which I might." Leo laughed and this time Jason laughed too.

"Oh please Leo." Piper said turning to join in the conversation, "You would shoot them at people. That's why in grade ten they banned you from having them." She rolled her eyes but also smiled slightly.

"Oh right, I forgot about that." Leo said not looking the slightest bit guilty. Jason felt a little left out knowing that Leo and Piper had history together but they seemed determined not to leave him out.

"So Blonde superman." Leo said turning his attention back to Jason.

"Jason." Piper corrected him.

"Whatever." Leo said waving the correction away "What class do you have next?"

"He has French class with me." Piper supplied before Jason could, and then smiled at him in a way that made his heart flutter.

"You watch it beauty queen, you're gonna give the poor guy a heart attack." Leo joked reaching over the desk to poke Piper's shoulder accusingly. Piper blinked in surprise and then smiled apologetically, obviously she trusted Leo enough to tell her when she was being accidentally flirtatious.

"Sorry." She said awkwardly.

"It's okay." Jason said, maybe a little too quickly. "I don't mind." Piper didn't seem to know how to feel or respond, but Leo smiled in a 'of course you don't' kind of way. Jason wondered if Leo ever stopped smiling or if ever single one of his expressions were just variations on a grin.

The bell rang and Leo swept the tiny helicopter into his bag, while Jason and Piper packed the books Leo hadn't. They walked together to the stairs and the separated, Jason and Piper going up and Leo straight.

French class was far less eventful than English without Leo, but Jason learned much more while Piper read surreptitiously under her desk. Half way through the class the teacher handed out a worksheet, which Piper completed in under ten minutes. Jason was having much more trouble with it and was very grateful when Piper offered to help him with it. With her help he managed to finish it by the end of class when most people had to take it home for homework.

"Do you want to eat together again today?" Jason asked.

"Sure." Piper said smiling "But I didn't pack a lunch today, I was planning on going out. There's a pizza place pretty close to the school."

"Oh." Jason said his heart sinking slightly, he didn't have any money with him.

"Oh come on don't' make that face." Piper said laughing a little "You looked like a kicked puppy. I can pay for you too if you don't have any money." Jason didn't want to inconvenience her, and was opening his mouth to refuse when she cut him off. "Nope that's a refusal face so now I'm insisting, I'm gonna pay for you too." She grinned at him crookedly and reluctantly he smiled back at her before a pair of arms wrapped around both of their shoulders.

"Yo beauty queen will you pay for me too?" Leo said laughing as Piper quickly stepped out from under his arm. Jason expected Piper to refuse but she just shrugged.

"I guess, it's my dad's money anyway." She said fishing a worn brown leather purse out of her main bag and slinging it over her shoulder.

"Oh right! Jason!" Leo said turning on his heel to face Jason, a bit too close for comfort, Jason stepped back. "Has she told you who her dad is yet!?"

"No she hasn't." Jason said surprised by the question. Why did it matter who Piper's dad was? He was curious as to the answer, but Leo grinned wickedly and opened his mouth to answer Piper whacked him on the back of the head.

"You tell him and there is no way in Tartarus I am paying for your Pizza!"

"Ow that hurt beauty queen." Leo complained rubbing the back of his head. "Fine I won't tell him yeesh." He shrugged apologetically to Jason who was very confused at this point. He decided not to ask though, Piper would tell him about it when she was ready and after all he was keeping his mother secret. She could keep her father, instead he thought.

"No way in Tartarus?" he had heard plenty of people say 'no way in hell' but he had never heard anyone use the ancient Greek equivalent.

"We both prefer the Greek religion over modern ones." Piper answered.

"Ya it's a pretty big thing in this town really" Leo added "We don't really know where it came from but a good amount of people still worship the Greek pantheon." Jason's father was like that he remembered, that must have been part of the reason he agreed to help Jason and his mother move here. He wondered what his mothers reaction would be if she found out, not that it was likely she would.

"Oh okay, that's pretty cool really." Was all he said though.

"Okay then lets go!" Leo said catching Piper with one arm again and Jason with the other and steering them towards the stairs. "Come on guys I'm starving I need pizza!"


	8. Scars

Lunch was fun even if the guy behind the counter tried to hit on Piper while they were ordering. She had pretended to be oblivious and it was almost fun to watch him flounder, although Jason felt annoyed at the guy anyway. Once they had ordered their pizza slices they left the store and walked to a nearby park and sat on the grass to eat. There were picnic benches but they were already occupied, Leo and Piper started telling embarrassing stories about each other and Jason couldn't stop laughing.

It fell to Jason to tell a embarrassing story about himself since neither of them had known him when he was younger. He decided to tell one about a time he had accidently agreed to go out with a girl at his private school, and had had to backpedal franticly. He had made a complete fool of himself and felt really bad for the girl but it was a funny story.

As Leo and Piper laughed Jason became very aware that because he was the palest one of this group, as his blush would be showing so much more than the others. He hid his face and his arms even though he was laughing too.

"No Jason, don't hide it's not that bad a promise." Piper assured him though she was still laughing.

"Nope, if I come out you'll laugh harder 'cause I look like a blonde tomato right now!" Jason said hearing a renewed fit of laughter from Leo.

"Blonde tomato, that's a funny image. Now I wanna see if you really do look like that."

"Now I'm definitely not going to come out." Jason laughed as Piper tried to pull his arms away from his face and he wrestled to keep them there, taking deep breaths to try and get the blood out of his face. He felt the heat leave his face slowly and after a few more moments came out from behind his own arms, hoping his face wasn't as red anymore.

"Awww." Leo said frowning for the first time Jason had seen. "The tomato left." Piper frowned too but shrugged it off not as disappointed as Leo seemed to be.

"Do you think we should head back to the school?" Piper asked making Jason very grateful to her for changing the subject "Lunch must be almost over."

"Ya, we probably should." Jason said smiling gratefully at her, though she didn't seem to notice.

"Oh come on guys!" Leo exclaimed rolling his eyes and flopping back onto the grass "Why go back to school at all? Let's go find something fun to do!" Jason and Piper exchanged exasperated looks, of course, Leo, would want to skip but it was only Jason's second day of school and he was already behind, so he definitely wasn't going to.

"Well you certainly don't have to come with us, Leo." Piper said standing up.

"Ya, though I'm sure the shop teacher will be positively _inconsolable _when he finds out you're not there to constantly interrupt his class." Jason said grinning as he stood up too. Leo looked a bit confused glancing between Piper and Jason.

"Well we're just going to head back now." Piper said still smiling. "Have fun skipping by yourself." Jason and Piper turned away and began walking away slowly.

It only took half way across the park before they heard the shout of "Hey wait up!" They stopped and Leo came up from behind them frowning.

"You guys are jerks." Leo said frowning at the two of them when he noticed their grins. "I'll tell the teacher it's your fault I'm in class, he'd probably be so happy to not see me." Leo said his grin firmly back in place as he joked.

They got back just as the bell rang so they hurried in, Piper rushing off to her class, and Leo and Jason to metal shop. Jason had been somewhat dreading this class because he had no idea what he was going to do for the project, but as it turned out he didn't really need to worry so much about doing the project as keeping Leo from doing the entire thing himself.

"Leo, it's supposed to show the teacher my skill level! My skill level definitely does not include a fucking metal bird!" Jason said staring at the bits and pieces of metal Leo had taken out of his hands and was quickly turning into a detailed bird that looked like some kind of jay.

"Don't worry dude, I'll help you and you can totally keep up this standard!" Leo said dancing out of Jason's reach as he tried to snatch the thing out of Leo's hands. Eventually Jason gave up and moved to the other side of the room, hoping that at least the bird would keep Leo distracted enough that Jason could work on a different project without interruption. Half way through the Class Leo came over to see what Jason was doing, but Jason was able to distract him again by reminding him of his own dragon project.

"Oh god, I neglected Festus!" Leo explained and rushed over to the dragon. Jason could swear he heard Leo apologizing to it. That kid really was crazy. Still it let Jason think and work, by the end of class he had an attempt at the beginnings of a bracelet. He had still been thinking of Piper and decided he wanted to get her something. A bracelet was an easy enough thing he could use as his project too and give to her once it was marked.

It was still plain right now, he had spent all of the class filing down the edges but later he could make some designs on it. He made a note to find out what sort of things she liked. It was obvious she didn't like jewelry very much, but he was almost certain a rough bracelet like this would fit into her style, all he had to find out what sort of thing she might like scribed on it.

When the class ended he felt good about what he had got done, he slipped the thing in his bag along with some sandpaper so he could continue smoothing the edges when he got home, then hurried to gym.

He hurried enough that this time when he got there Nico was still in the change room. He was the only one in there, when Jason entered the room he dropped his gym bag in shock. Not because Nico, was in there. That wouldn't have been surprising at all. It was because Nico had his back to Jason with his shirt off, and there were more scars there than skin. Jason didn't freak out about scars normally, he had a fair few himself from bites and accidents he had been in including the two on his face, but Nico's scars weren't small ones like that. Before Jason could get a better look, Nico seemed to register Jason was there, and snatched his shirt whipping around as he pulled it on faster than Jason had ever seen anyone get dressed before.

"What are you looking at Grace?" Nico hissed with pure venom in his voice, his eyes burning with such menace that Jason took a step back.

"N-Nothing Nico I-" Jason stammered, though his eyes were still wide. He was pretty sure Nico would be able to see some pity lingering there under the fear. Jason trailed off unsure of what to say.

"Get out of the way!" Nico demanded storming towards the door and Jason hurried to oblige, scurrying out of his way and understanding why everyone else at this school seemed to be so afraid of him. Still, Jason didn't want to be afraid, especially after seeing all those scars he was sure that Nico was more hurt and afraid than dangerous, and he wanted to be there for him. Not matter how dark and scary he seemed. So after Jason changed and went into the gym he walked over to Nico and leaned against the wall beside him.

He could see Nico tensed but didn't move away, as Jason had half expected him to. Apparently he was refusing to run away. Jason opened his mouth to speak but Nico cut him off before he could.

"I'm not playing any game with you today if that's what you're about to ask." He snapped.

"No that's not what I was gonna ask." Jason said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly "Actually I was going to apologize about that. From the way you took off yesterday I'm guessing all the attention that got you was unwanted, and I'm sorry." Jason watched as Nico's eyes widened, he didn't seem to know what to say, like not many people had apologized to him in his life.

"I guess it's okay." Nico huffed after a moment. "They'll forget about it soon enough. Just so long as no one tries to _talk _to me about it." Nico said talk like it was the worst thing that could happen to him, and even though Jason was pretty sure Nico was being serious, he couldn't help but laugh. Again this seemed to shock Nico, but he didn't seem to mind and he didn't tell Jason to go away, so he stayed propped against the wall next to Nico.

"Hey do you want to play Basketball with us?" Jason looked up at the tall brown haired boy in front of them tossing a ball back and forth between his hands. He was only looking at Jason and Jason got the distinct impression that the offer did not extend to Nico. Jason glanced over at Nico and saw him staring at the ground, his messy black hair hiding his eyes.

"Not right now dude, sorry." Jason said apologetically, "Maybe tomorrow though, or after school." The boy seemed shocked by the answer but shrugged.

"Okay if you're sure." He said glancing at Nico, this time obviously wondering why Jason would choose to spend his time with Nico, rather than playing with them. Jason nodded and the guy dribbled away. Jason watched the guy go before turning back to Nico and finding him staring at Jason with eyes wide and his mouth open slightly.

"What?" Jason asked smiling crookedly. Nico shook his head and closed his mouth.

"Why didn't you go play with them?" Nico asked, his eyes were shadowed with his hair so Jason couldn't quite see what sort of expression Nico had. He wondered if Nico would rather Jason leave so he could be alone.

"Well umm." Jason said shrugging helplessly. "I don't really feel like it and you always seem to be on your own so.." Jason trailed off helplessly. Nico pushed away from the wall suddenly standing in front of Jason with his fists clenched glaring at him.

"I'm not you pity project Grace." He growled softly. Jasons eyes widened as he realized that was how he had come across.

"No! No Nico that is not what I meant." Jason said frantically, he waved his hand in a denying motion and took a deep breath before trying to explain. "It's just I'm a new kid here, so I don't have many friends and you don't seem to have many friends so I thought that maybe we could sort of be friends? I mean you don't seem to like people that much but you must get lonely sometimes right? I mean." Jason cut off abruptly as he realized he was rambling and looked at Nico again apprehensively. Nico had ducked his head again so his hair was hiding his face, but Jason should almost have sworn he saw a little bit of a blush on Nico's sunken cheeks.

"Fine." Nico mumbled slumping back against the wall beside Jason. Jason let out his breath, that had gone better than could be expected now. That could even be taken as Nico agreeing to be Jason's friend. Jason smiled happily and decided to risk conversation.

"So Nico, what sort of things do you do for fun when you're not in school?" It was a pretty generic question, but it would help Jason start getting to know Nico.

"Mostly just hang out with Hazel and her boyfriend. And swordplay." Jason was sure some people would be uncomfortable, but not Jason. It was his turn to push himself off the wall but in excitement not anger.

"I swordfight too!" he exclaimed excitedly, it wasn't that often he found someone else with that interest in common. "We should practice together some time! It's so hard to find other people to practice with. Do you have your own sword?" Jason asked excitedly. He had a sword, a gold coloured one given to him by his father before he left, if Nico had one too they could practice any time they wanted.

"Yes I have one." Nico said seemingly shocked into the answer. "It's a real one though, no dulled edges or anything.

"That's alright, mine is too. We'll just have to be careful." Jason said waving it away and already thinking of places they could meet to practice, even though Nico hadn't really agreed, when the teacher called class to order.

* * *

I think this is the best chapter I've written so far so I'm going to take this opportunity to thank my lovely editor Homer who goes by Salukinut on tumblr if you want to look him up and also to point out that I have a tumblr too. My blog is to-much-tea-stuff also called Death and tea and I answer questions as Nico if any of you have some.


	9. Can I help?

The next day when Jason woke up he stretched a groaned. That gym teacher was insane, he made them work out as if they were training for war! Jason was sore all over as he forced himself out of bed he took a moment to try and stretch out some of the stiffness, he wondered how Nico was feeling this morning because he had worked much harder than Jason, and Jason felt like hell. Or maybe in this town 'felt like Tartarus' might be more appropriate.

He smiled at that thought and mindlessly went through his morning routine. He didn't sit down for breakfast today and left fifteen minutes early with an apple in hand. There was nothing he needed to do at school, but he could hear his mother moving around in her room and he wanted to be gone before she came down. He got to school more than forty five minutes before classes thanks to leaving so early.

He didn't expect anyone he knew to be there. At first he thought he was right, until he remembered that Nico had been on the canopy over the school driveway the first time Jason had seen him, and looked up. Sure enough, unnoticed by most people he could just see a pair of worn sneakers poking over the edge.

Jason looked around trying to figure out how Nico had gotten up there, eventually he found a way, maybe not the one Nico used, but a way up. It wasn't very safe, but Jason was stupidly unafraid of heights and with few people out front he was able to climb quickly up. Nico didn't seem to notice when Jason made it up, he was laying on his back staring up at the sky.

"Hey Nico." Jason said making his presence known. Nico started up into a sitting position as soon as Jason spoke and tensed as if ready to jump and run. Jason supposed since Nico wasn't supposed to be up here he was worried about getting in trouble. "Wow, wow. Easy it's just me you're not in trouble." Nico relaxed quickly though he seemed a bit angry that he had been startled.

"As if I'd be worried about getting in trouble." Nico said snorting incredulously. Jason shrugged.

"Then why'd you jump like that?" he asked. It was Nico's turn to shrug, he didn't seem to know what to say.

"Why are you here so early?" Nico asked Jason obviously changing the subject but Jason let it happen. He didn't want to push Nico to much yet or he might push Jason away.

"I like to leave before my mom get's up." Jason said truthfully "She makes a big fuss over me leaving sometimes even if it's just to go to school." It was the truth, not the full truth, Nico would probably just think that Jason's mom was really overprotective, not that she was scared he wouldn't come back, just like his father. "What about you?"

"There's just no where else I'd rather be right now." Nico said, it seemed to be the truth. Jason couldn't help but wonder why, most kids would rather be anywhere but at school, not think of school as the best place to be.

"You like school?" Jason asked Nico. Nico had gone back to staring at the sky, Jason lay back and joined him. It was an interesting day to watch the sky, clouds were moving across it quite quickly, even though it wasn't too windy down where they were. Jason thought there might be rain later, he hoped there would be thunder and lightning, he loved lightning.

"I like school enough." Nico said after a small pause. "Mostly because I can see Hazel here, but I like learning."

"What are your favourite subjects?" Jason asked trying to keep up conversation.

"I like history, religion is interesting too, and gym of course." Nico didn't ask about Jason, he didn't seem anxious at all to keep up conversation but he was answering questions so Jason persisted.

"I don't really have a favorite subject. Hazel's your half sister? I'd like to meet her." Jason caught the movement of Nico shrugging out of the corner of his eye.

"You can meet her whenever you want to find her. She's friendlier than me. She's probably be glad to welcome you to this school." Nico voice was monotone, he obviously wasn't really paying attention to the conversation anymore and Jason let it drop. The silence wasn't awkward because Nico didn't want anything said and that attitude was contagious, so they lay quietly and watched the sky as the noise of students arriving increased beneath them.

"Hazel's bus will be arriving soon." Nico said after twenty minutes and sat up watching the buses that were coming in for his cinnamon haired sister.

"Will you introduce me to her?" Jason asked sitting up as well.

"Why?" Nico said looking at him in a strange way, confused, maybe resentful Jason couldn't tell. "Piper will be here soon, won't you want to go with her."

"Well I don't know." Jason said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly unsure of how to take that. "I mean me, Piper, and Leo have spent the last few days together, I thought I might spend some of today with you. Since you seem to spend most of your time with your sister I thought I should meet her." Nico blinked and looked away his face hidden by his hair again.

"Alright." He muttered awkwardly, "She just got off the bus we can go now." Nico pushed himself off, dropping casually to the ground almost on top of a younger girl who shrieked and fell back. Nico didn't seem to notice. Jason dropped down after him, helped the girl up and apologized before following Nico to meet his sister. She was looking around anxiously as they approached, when she spotted Nico a wide smile made it clear he was who she had been looking for. He smiled too as she hurried up and gave him a hug he returned quickly.

"Where's Frank?" Nico asked. Jason and no idea who Frank was. "Isn't he on the same bus as you?"

"He's not feeling well so he couldn't come today." She said with a small frown. "Why? Do you want to scare him some more?" She teased and Nico chuckled lightly, surprising Jason so much he nearly fell over.

"He's dating my little sister, it's my job to scare him." Nico reminded Hazel fondly as if they had had this talk many times before. "This is Jason by the way Hazel." Nico said finally introducing him to Hazel. "He seems to have attached himself to me." Jason blushed slightly but held out his hand which Hazel shook smiling at him. He noticed for the first time how gold her eyes were, it hardly seemed like it could be natural but in her floral dress she hardly seemed the type to be wearing contacts.

"It's nice to meet you Jason." Hazel said after scrutinizing Jason for a moment. "I think it might be good for Nico for you to 'attach to him' he needs more friends."

"No I don't." Huffed Nico, Hazel laughed and shook her head but didn't say anything more about it. Jason didn't either, but mostly because he didn't know what to say.

"It's nice to meet you to Hazel." Jason said. Jason stayed and talked with Nico and Hazel until the bell rang, though it was mostly Jason and Hazel who did the talking. Nico was right, Hazel was much more friendly than he was and was easy to talk to, but she made sure Nico was included in the conversation too. It seemed to come quite naturally to her though, Nico's short answers might have made it hard or frustrating to others, yet she seemed to know exactly how to handle her brother.

When the bell rang they all went different directions because they all had very different classes, but Hazel had promised (to Nico's displeasure), that Jason could come and eat lunch with them if he wanted. He had agreed right away. Piper and Leo would understand, he would just let Piper know what he planned in their French class. She would understand, she had already said she wanted to know more about Nico too.

Jason didn't pay as much attention to his English class today. Even though the teacher had moved Leo away from him and Piper, he just wasn't interested. Piper seemed to be though so he didn't try to distract her, instead he looked out the door at the occasional students passing. It was only thanks to this that he noticed Nico hurrying by and saw the three larger boys following him. Jason put up his hand.

"Yes Grace?" the teacher asked

"May I please go to the washroom." The teacher nodded and Jason hurried out turning the opposite direction of the washroom to follow Nico and the people chasing him. He followed them up the flight of stairs at the end of the hall, Nico took them two at a time but the three others were still hard on his heals. Jason didn't know how close to get because he still didn't know what was going on.

It was in the main hallway upstairs that the three boys caught up with Nico. The hall was empty because everyone else was in class. They grabbed him and pushed him into a wall. He hit with a clang, but not a loud enough one to bring anyone out. Jason started forward, but paused when Nico lunged forward and punched the middle boy in the gut. He doubled over and Nico kneed him in the face before the other two grabbed him by His arms and forced him back.

The locker they had Nico against had burst open and now they forced him back into it. Not many kids Nico's age would have fit, but because Nico was so thin they just barely managed. Nico fought like a wildcat, though always quietly. The third attacker had recovered, and together they managed to get him far enough in that when they closed the door he had no choice but to retreat or have his fingers broken. They closed the door on him and put the lock through the slot, though Jason hoped they hadn't actually locked it.

Then laughing they walked away and left Jason shaking with rage, wishing he could make himself move to kick those boys asses. He only unfroze once the boys were gone, and he hurried to the wall of lockers. He couldn't tell exactly which locker Nico was in, so he paused for a moment listening for breathing. He heard it quickly but it wasn't the type he expected. He expected Nico's breathing to be harsh and quick with anger, but it wasn't. It was shaky, light and kept catching like he was crying.

Jason opened the locker immediately, glad to find that it wasn't locked. Nico fell out, literally onto his knees. His arms crossed over his chest hugging himself, shaking.

"Hey Nico are you okay?" Jason asked kneeling down in front of Nico.

"Ya, I'm fine." Nico said but his voice caught in his throat, and he was still shaking. "I just hate being trapped. I need to get outside." He stood up and Jason stood up too.

"I'll come with you." He said but Nico shook his head.

"You haven't been at this school very long, you're too good to skip a class already."

"I'll skip if you need me." Jason said indignantly. He didn't like that Nico thought Jason would put class over him, especially since it had been just yesterday Jason had told Nico he wanted to be friends.

"Well I don't need you." Nico snapped "I'll be fine on my own." Jason tried not to feel hurt by that, he hadn't known Nico for very long, but already he could see Nico's fear of depending on others. That wasn't either of their faults, Jason would just have to figure out a way of showing Nico it would be okay to depend on him.

"If you're sure?" Jason asked and Nico nodded. "Okay, well if you need anything just find me. I'll try to help." Nico nodded again and they both walked up the hall towards the stairs, because both the door outside and Jason's class were at the bottom of them. Nico didn't say anything obviously trying very hard to control his breathing and Jason just tried to be a reassuring presence until they reached the bottom of the stairs, where Nico practically bolted outside.

Jason headed back to class, he hadn't even been gone that long but now the teachers lecture couldn't hold any of his attention at all. He was worried about Nico. He knew claustrophobia was a fairly common fear but he had never seen anyone react that badly to anything, and he couldn't shake the feeling that Nico shouldn't be alone. Maybe Jason should have gone looking for Hazel, Nico would have accepted help from her.

* * *

Sorry it took me so long to get this done school is mad. I tried to make it a bit longer to make up for it. Just incase anyone was wondering I won't be stopping writing this fic after the final book comes out though I will probably edit the course of the fanfiction to reflect that new information. I hope you will all keep reading it after he book comes out and thank you for the comments and favorites, I really appreciate them.


	10. Getting to know eachother

It didn't seem to matter that Jason hadn't gone to get Hazel, because when Jason went to meet Nico and Hazel at lunch she was already there with him. He looked much better, still shaken and standing closer to Hazel than he had been that morning, but not panicked anymore. His arms crossed over his chest watching Jason warily. Probably wondering if Jason would bring up what had happened earlier. Jason didn't.

"Do you two have a place you normally sit?" He asked, Nico looked relieved and uncrossed his arms. Hazel shot Jason a grateful look.

"We usually sit behind the bleachers on the other side of the yard. It's a nice quiet place, no one bothers us there." Hazel told Jason happily. "Do you need to buy a lunch? Me and Nico have packed ones."

"No I brought a packed one too." Jason assured her.

"Alright, then lets go." Hazel started leading the way and Jason and Nico followed her. Hazel began chatting easily, asking Jason how his morning was, talking about her own and generally making small talk. Jason noticed she didn't ask Nico about his morning, presumably she already knew what had happened.

Once they reached the far bleachers Nico sat down with his back against one of the supports, Hazel sat down beside Nico and Jason sat down in front of them. Now, looking back and forth between the two of them, he was struck again by how opposite the two siblings were. Nico's skin was pale , Hazel's dark, Nico was hunched and leaning back, Hazel sat up straight and property, Nico was dressed all in black, Hazels dress was bright and floral and Hazel was smiling and Nico wasn't. The only thing that was similar about the two of them was their eyes, they were different colors of course but they both had the same look. Older than they should be and like they had seen too much.

Hazel took off her backpack, put it on the grass beside her, and began rummaging through it. Jason did the same noticing out of the corner of his eye that Hazel took two lunches from her bag, and handed one to Nico. Jason wondered why Hazel had been carrying Nico's lunch as he found his own, mildly squashed lunch under his English textbook. He sighed grumpily, he should have been more careful. At least he hadn't packed a banana in his lunch today or it would have been smushed all over everything.

"Oh shoot!" Hazel exclaimed making Jason and Nico jump.

"What?" Nico asked looking mildly concerned.

"I left my water bottle in my locker." Hazel said getting up and smoothing out a crease in her dress. "I'm going to hurry back and get it. I'll be back soon." She trotted off before Nico or Jason could say anything. Nico sat up to watch her go, then shrugged and leaned back against the pole opening up his lunch and pulling out an applesauce. Jason took a thermos, he had packed soup today, he hoped it would still be warm.

"Thank you for what you did earlier." Nico said abruptly without looking at Jason, "If you hadn't been there I might have been stuck till lunch." Nico sounded frustrated, Jason was noticing more and more how much Nico seemed to hate needing anyone else's help. He was surprised that Nico did thank him, he had half expected Nico to refuse to acknowledge he had needed help.

"You're welcome." Jason said his surprise registering on his face for a moment before he managed to wipe it away. "I saw you running passed my English class and I had to do something. I'm sorry I didn't interfere sooner."

"It's fine," Nico said shaking his head. "Normally I could have dealt with them myself, but this week hasn't been… good." Nico hesitated as if he didn't know what word to use before settling on good. Jason could think of many things that could mean but he suspected it had something to do with Hazel having brought Nico's lunch.

"Are you going to be alright now?" Jason asked softly "I mean you were really shaken up earlier."

"I'll be fine." Nico said equally softly, "I just hate feeling trapped." Jason nodded, that made sense still he asked.

"Why? I mean every fear is there for a reason right? I'm afraid of losing my memory because I had amnesia once, and it was one of the most terrifying thing I've ever been through." Jason didn't usually tell people about that, but he figured that he had to share with Nico or he wouldn't be honest with Jason. Nico was quiet for a moment and Jason wondered if he would ignore the question.

"There was one time… about a year ago, I spent almost a week trapped and, I just never want that to happen again." Jason didn't know how to respond so he just nodded, he was curious about how Nico had gotten trapped but he didn't want to ask.

"How did you get out?" he asked instead, Nico wouldn't answer if he didn't want to.

"Hazel found me." Nico said shrugging "I mean no one else was looking, I disappear too often for anyone else to think twice about it. I always tell Hazel before I go and when I didn't she knew something was wrong, but no one would believe her so she got help from some of her friends and came looking for me herself." Jason had under estimated how close the two of them were but now it made a bit more sense the way Nico acted with Hazel, he must owe her a lot. He wondered if Hazel owed Nico as much.

"You two really love each other huh?" Jason wondered if his sister would come looking for him if he went missing. She probably would know too, it wasn't as if their mother would tell her, and Thalia never visited really because she and their mother couldn't see each other without fighting. She did call on a regular basis though, and maybe after a few weeks of Jason not answering she would get suspicious.

"We're the only blood relatives besides our father either of us have left, we have to be close." Jason nodded again, some small families seemed to take their bond much more seriously than big ones. "Do you have a sister?" Jason was taken aback by the question, not because it was a overly personal one, but just because Nico hadn't been showing any interest in Jason before it, letting Jason ask all the questions and keep conversation going.

"Yes I do. Her name is Thalia, but she's older than me and already moved out because her and my mom didn't get along well." Nico nodded frowning slightly.

"That's too bad." Nico said softly, it wasn't pitying, just a statement "Sisters can be great things to have." Jason nodded. When Thalia had been at home she had been more of a mother to him than his real mother had, at the same time he had sometimes found it quite annoying, but now that she was gone he was missing her like mad.

"She's offered me the chance to move in with her... but I don't think my mom's ready to lose both her kids yet." Jason didn't think his mother would ever be ready to lose him. She had become increasingly possessive over him, like she could make up for losing his father and his sister as if she could keep him forever. He didn't know if he would ever be able to break free of her but he didn't say any of that.

"Do you want to move in with her?" Nico asked, he was looking up at Jason, now his black eyes sharp with interest. Jason was still having a hard time meeting them.

"A bit." Jason said shrugging "I love my sister, but of course I love my mom too and right now I think she needs me more." Nico nodded and didn't ask any further finally opening the applesauce he had been holding in his lap, folding the foil topping into a makeshift spoon and beginning to eat. Jason followed suit, getting a real spoon out of his lunch box, and twisting open his thermos finding his soup still steaming.

"So you said that you do sword fighting, is there a club that you belong to here?" Jason asked after a few bites, Nico had finished the applesauce and pulled out a bag of carrot and cucumber sticks.

"No." Nico answer after he had swallowed a bite of carrot "I had some friends who taught me when I was about nine, and then some other people who kept me in practice, but I've never belonged to a club." Jason nodded, it wasn't the traditional way to learn but it worked.

"Are you free after school today?" Jason asked. "I haven't had a chance to practice in a while and I'd like to practice." For a minute Jason was sure Nico would say no, but then he shrugged.

"I haven't had a chance to practice in a while either. I know a little park about 15 minute walk from here that is always deserted. We can go there to practice without being bothered if you don't have anywhere better." Jason shook his head, he hadn't had much of a chance to explore this town yet and he didn't know any places at all.

"We'll have to drop by my house quickly first, I don't carry my sword with me." Jason said jokingly, Nico nodded.

"I keep mine in my locker so we won't have to go to mine. Hopefully yours is close to the park and not in the completely opposite direction." They fell silent and Hazel came jogging back to them over the field her water bottle swinging in her hand.

"Sorry about that." She said smiling and sitting back down next to Nico. "I hope it wasn't to awkward while I was away." Obviously she was used to keeping conversations on Nico's behalf and wasn't sure how it would have gone without her.

"No it was fine." Jason assured her. "We just talked and Nico agreed to meet after school to practice swordplay since we both practice it." Hazel looked completely shocked for a moment then broke into a very happy smile. She bounced slightly in a way Jason found very cute.

"Excellent." She enthused "That will be great, Nico's been complaining about how he hasn't been able to actually push himself in a match against anyone. I hope you know what you've gotten yourself into Jason." She laughed happily and Jason chuckled too, Hazel's laugh was almost as infectious as Pipers, Even Nico smiled.

* * *

A/N I have read most of The Blood of Olympus, I know we have some new information about Nico but I feel like Rick is downplaying the PTSD Nico would have because of what he's been threw so I'm going to keep on as I planned.

I would like opinions on whether or not I should leave the story Jasico or ad Will into it, let me know what you think please cause I really don't know which one to do.


	11. Drawing and Dodge Ball

The three of them lost track of time as they chatted over the lunch, Nico becoming more and more comfortable with Jason's presence. Hazel and Jason kept up a steady conversation, Nico joining in when he had something to say and sitting in a contented silence when he didn't. Jason learned that Hazel was adopted and that although she liked her adopted parents, she had only met her real dad a couple of times and wished she had gotten to spend more time with him. Nico shifted uncomfortably, Jason assumed Nico had gotten to spend lots of time with their father, it was on the father's side that they were siblings.

Nico and Hazel learned about the town Jason had lived in before he had moved, more about his sister and some about his dad who he had only met a couple of times as well. It was easy to open up to these two, they were good listeners, neither of them tried to give any advise or tell him they knew what it was like, they just listened intently. Hazel would nod encouragingly any time Jason faltered in a story or hesitated to tell something, Nico just listened, his hands flitting over the grass occasionally pulling out bits of it.

The result of this was that when the bell rang none of them were ready for it. Both Jason and Hazel hurried to get ready. Nico got ready at a more languid pace but was still ready at the same time as Jason, he supposed slow but steady at least tied in the race. Hazel was packed up last and then they all started across the lawn splitting up just inside the doors. Jason jogged the rest of the way to his shop class to arrive on time and slid inside only moments after the bell.

"Yo Jason, where were you over lunch today?" Was Jason's greeting, shouted at him by Leo from across the room. "Beauty queen and I were looking for you!" The teacher was at the front of the room looking very disgruntled. Jason had the impression Leo had interrupted him. All eyes were on Jason. He could feel blood rushing to his face as he looked down and hurried across the room to Leo, so at least he wouldn't shout again.

"Later." Jason mumbled to Leo as the teacher started talking again, reminding that their project was due at the end of the week. In two days. Or he would take whatever they had. Once he was done that he went through a quick reminder of some of the safety rules in the shop then dismissed them to get back to work.

"So where were you?" Leo asked Jason again hurrying over to Festus to continue working, although it already looked like a dragon to Jason and he had no idea what Leo was still working on.

"I sat with Nico and Hazel today." Jason told Leo taking the bracelet that was his project out of his bag. He had sanded it pretty much smooth the night before, now he just had to ask Leo how to carve a design onto it. And possibly what sort of design Piper would like on it.

"Wow that's cool, usually only that big Asian kid Frank sits with them. Still I think Piper might be a bit annoyed at you for leaving her alone with me." Leo gave his usual manic grin pulling a pair of goggles that had been on his head half hidden by curly hair, down to cover his eyes as he turned to the dragon.

"Frank wasn't here today." Jason said shrugging and deciding to ask the teacher about the how to make the design rather than Leo, because Leo was already half under the Dragon fiddling around with something inside it. "I'll tell both you and Piper all about it tomorrow. I should work today."

"Cool man, whatever." Leo said completely focused on what he was doing. "Wait you have a job?" Jason laughed, Leo really was out of it.

"No I don't, nevermind, just work on your dragon."

"Kay." Jason left Leo to whatever he was doing and went over to the teacher who happily showed how to carve a design into the bracelet (it was almost a gauntlet really) using a thing called an engraver that scratched designs in metal like a pen, only much more permanent.

"Draw out the design first so you know what you're planning, get comfortable doing it before you try to put it on the metal." Jason nodded and thanked the teacher and then went to a work table, grabbing a pencil and paper to try and figure out what he was going to do. He stared at the metal of the bracelet blankly wondering if it was actually possible for his brain to get up and walk out of his head, because it certainly wasn't doing anything just then.

"Jason, what are you doing?" Jason jumped, he hadn't heard Leo coming up behind him, but there the kid was leaning over Jason's shoulder staring at the blank paper in confusion.

"Trying to figure out what design to put n the bracelet I'm making for my project." Jason told him.

"What about the bird I was making for you?" Leo asked looking kind of hurt. Jason tried not to feel bad even though he knew he had nothing to feel bad about.

"I'm supposed to make this on my own to show the teacher what I can really do." Jason reminded Leo and he grumbled but gave in.

"Well, who's the bracelet for?" Leo asked leaning against the desk and pushing his goggles back up into his hair.

"umm Piper." Jason said awkwardly not sure if Leo would tease him for that or not. Leo just nodded thoughtfully as if he had expected that.

"Then I'd say just something random but pretty. Not like flowers or anything, beauty queen would hate that but something that looks sort of tribal, Celtic or just swirly." Leo made a twirling motion with his finger to demonstrate, "Maybe fire… that's it!" For a moment Jason thought Leo was telling him that's what he should put on the bracelet, but then Leo sprinted across the room and Jason realized it had nothing to do with him.

Jason twisted around in his seat to see where Leo was going. Leo ran to his dragon Festus and leapt up onto its back, opened a panel on its neck no one else would have been able to notice, pulled a handful of wires and disappeared half into the dragon. Jason had no idea what leo was doing in there but if he had gotten the idea right after talking about fire Jason was pretty sure he didn't like it and absolutely sure it wasn't safe. Still Jason was to curios about what Leo was trying to do to stop him and merely twisted back around to focus on his own work, leaving Leo to whatever he was doing.

Jason turned his attention to the paper, swirly and pretty, okay, he could do that. Jason spent the rest of the class trying to draw how wind _felt _strong, smooth, swirling and twining. It was hard, Jason kept getting distracted and messing up, but after five attempts he thought he had a good one. He drew it out again three more times before the bell rang, then folded the paper carefully and put it in his bag. He would make the pattern tomorrow just in time to hand it in. He hoped he would get it back soon, because suddenly he was looking forward to giving it to Piper. He didn't want to leave it in the metal shop, so he tucked it back in his bag as he left the class and headed to gym.

He took his time this time to make sure he wouldn't walk in on Nico changing, because that had made the younger boy very angry last time. Sure enough when Jason got to the gym Nico was leaning safely against the far wall, changed, and ready. Jason grinned and waved at him, Nico lifted one hand acknowledgment and Jason went to change.

He didn't go to Nico once he was changed this time, instead joining a game of bump. He didn't want to exclude himself from his other peers and since he was going to be hanging out with Nico after school, and had at lunch, he felt like spending gym with Nico as well would clash. Nico didn't join any of the games going on in the gym, no surprise there, but Jason did catch him watching the bump game a couple of time like he might like to join in. Jason made up his mind to ask Nico if he wanted to join next time.

When the class did start it didn't change much, since the class had worked out the day before the teacher decided that they should just play games. Half the gym was assigned to a game of dodge ball and the other basketball. Nico immediately crossed to the dodge ball side, Jason was going to stay and play basketball but then he noticed people on the opposing team to Nico looking distinctly uneasy. Well, Jason and Nico seemed to be fairly equal. Might as well make it a fair game, Jason thought smiling crookedly and going over to them.

Nico stared across at Jason for a moment challenging, Jason grinned back accepting the challenge. Suddenly Nico grinned and Jason understood why everyone on his team looked uneasy, that smile made Jason wish he was on Nico's team as well, but it was too late now. The teacher handed out purple jerseys to Jason's team, Orange to Nico's, The teams lined up against the walls as the teacher arranged the balls along the middle line, he stepped back out of the way and blew his whistle signifying the games beginning.

Nico and Jason were the first ones up, sprinting towards the middle line. Nico grabbed one ball and knocked two of the five balls back to his team. Jason got the other two, and then they both skipped back to join their teams a bit farther back from the line. Nico threw his ball hard, aiming for Jason's feet, but Jason jumped clearing it easily, and maybe showing off how high he could jump a little bit. Nico smirked at him, silently calling out his action, Jason made a face back, and threw his ball so Nico had to skip back to avoided getting hit. That ball hit a girl behind Nico and the game began in earnest.

Not only Nico and Jason got really into that game. Almost everyone did, it was like their adrenalin spread between the teams, from member to member and before they knew it everyone was treating the game like a life and death battle. Jason found himself laughing, as he had to duck out of the way of one of his own team's balls as they threw two hard towards the other team. He loved games like this, it was like the adrenalin rush completed him. Filled in some primal part of him that _itched _when he didn't get a chance to have, at least a simulated fight. He was pretty sure that from the way Nico was acting he felt the same way, and that made him laugh again.

The game continued for the entire class, no one won. Even after the bell rang everyone seemed reluctant to stop, as those who had been playing basketball filed into the change room, the dodge ball game continued. The teacher had to come and break it up telling everyone to make note of their team, and they could continue the game the next day. Once that was settled everyone went to the change rooms except Nico who volunteered to put away the equipment. Jason guessed it was so he wouldn't have to change in front of the rest of the boys in the class, but he let it slide, he would have to ask Nico about the scars later.

* * *

A/N sorry to anyone who wanted Jasico Solango has won, however that won't be for a while and I have plenty of drama planned for the mean time. I hope you enjoy this chapter!


	12. Dueling on the Dead

A/N disclaimer I know absolutely nothing about sword fighting so this chapter largely consists 'how I think it works maybe?' and a certainly don't know any technical terms so if anyone reads this who actually knows something about dueling please have mercy on me, I did my best!

* * *

Once Jason was changed he left the room passing Nico on his way out. "I'll wait for you out here." Jason told him and Nico nodded disappearing through the door. There were still a few people in there, so Jason didn't expect Nico to be out in a hurry and he wasn't. It was about ten minutes later, five minutes after the last people had cleared out that Nico came back in his black jeans and clutching his bag.

"Where's your locker? Mines upstairs so if yours is down here we should go to it first." Nico said without bothering with a greeting.

"I don't actually need to go to my locker." Jason said shifting from one foot to the other impatiently and lifting his backpack up onto his shoulder from it's place on the ground. "So we can go straight to yours and then head out." Nico nodded in agreement and led the way out of the gym.

The halls were close to clear now, anyone who was taking a bus having already left. Jason relaxed, Nico seemed to be more comfortable the fewer people around, and with so few people around Jason was pretty sure he could engage the kid in conversation. Maybe even ask some of the questions that had been bothering him, but first things first.

"Is there anyone you should call and tell you'll be hanging out with me today?" Jason asked, he knew Nico had said that Hazel was the only one who had noticed his disappearance but still, Nico must have someone, even a foster parent, that would be expecting him home. Nico only shook his head as they started up a set of stairs to the second floor.

"No it's fine, I often go to parks or just wander around a bit after school." Nico didn't look at Jason as he spoke, but Jason shrugged anyway. Taking a deep breath he asked one of the questions that had been bothering him.

"This is going to seem random but the first time we met, when asked you to show me around? You said you had killed that goldfish but you hadn't touched it, what did you mean by that?" Jason was bit anxious that this question would overstep some line. Nico paused for a moment at the top of the stairs and Jason nearly ran into him, but then Nico started walking again. Nico's locker was close to the stairs and they had reached it by the time Nico answered.

"Things tend to die around me." His head was down, looking at the combination lock of his locker that he was fiddling with. "Plants especially but sometimes small animals and… other things." He got the lock open but didn't look up, opening the locker, and rummaging through the clutter. Jason was surprised, he certainly knew people who seemed to be able to kill plants just by looking at them the wrong way but he thought it was just because plants were temperamental.

"I don't really think I killed Mrs. Stanly's goldfish." Nico said quietly after another moment. "But sometimes it really helps to have someone to blame. No one likes to think of death is natural part of life, even though it is. Especially for Mrs. Stanly, I think she's afraid of death, the fish reminded her of death and it was easier for her to say I had _killed _it then to except that sometimes things just _die._" Jason was shocked, he hadn't expected any type of reason like that, he had half expected Nico to say he said that because he wanted everyone to be afraid of him. But Nico's eyes were softer than Jason had ever seen them, he seemed sympathetic, not at all angry or resentful like Jason knew he would be if anyone blamed him like that.

"And you don't mind being blamed like that?" Jason said softly as Nico finally pulled a black-sheathed sword out of his locker, and slung it over his shoulder by a strap to dangle next to his backpack.

"They'd do it either way." Nico replied shrugging, he started walking towards the back staircase, down to the door; Jason hurried to walk beside him. "Besides I think we all have something we'd much rather avoid than face. If it makes them feel better and it doesn't make me feel worse," Nico shrugged "Where's the harm in it? Mr. Blofis doesn't believe it so he won't let them kick me out and I'm too good a worker for them to fail me, so I don't mind."

Jason nodded and was silent for quite awhile as they left the school. He took the lead to lead them back to his house so he could pick up his own sword that his father had given him. He knew what Nico meant by things he would rather avoid than face, for the longest time he had blamed his sister, and even himself for his mother's madness before he realized that it was no ones fault, and he was just the one who had to deal with it.

He wondered what Nico wanted to avoid and who he blamed for it, or if he was over it like Jason hoped he was. He was also trying to understand why people would blame Nico for things that died even if they weren't his fault, but he didn't fully understand until he glanced over at Nico and met his eyes as Jason had been avoiding that he realized why, and why it had made him so uncomfortable to look into Nico's eyes before, they looked dead. Like if eyes were the window the soul, Nico didn't have a soul. Jason looked away quickly at that thought and tried to stop thinking about it.

"How far from your house are we?" Jason startled slightly, he hadn't expected Nico to be the one to break the silence between them.

"Not far." Jason said looking around them. "About two more blocks. Are we far away from the park you mentioned would be good to practice in?"

"About twenty five minutes walking." Nico said with a shrug.

"Is there anywhere closer we could go?"

"The only place I know that we would have a chance of some privacy is a graveyard, would you be comfortable with that?" Nico looked at Jason curiously. Jason got the impression by the shrewd look on Nico's face that he would being judged based on his reaction. The thought of dueling in a graveyard made Jason a little uncomfortable, but he remembered what Nico had said about people being uncomfortable with death. Jason didn't want to seem like that, he wasn't afraid of death, even if he couldn't look Nico in the eye, Jason would not fear him.

"That's fine." Jason said doing his best to sound casual. Though his tension forced his voice a bit higher then it was normally. Nico chuckled, not entirely nice chuckle but not mean either.

"Alright that's only about ten minutes then." Nico said, Jason could hear some approval in Nico's voice. They turned down Jason's street finally, and Nico waited outside as Jason snuck inside. Doing his best not to alert his mother to his presence as he crept up to his room, grabbed his sword, and hurried out again with her none the wiser.

"Okay lead the way." Jason said once he was out of the house and fell into step with Nico as he backtracked to the end of the street, and then turned the opposite direction of the school. "How long have you been training with sword fighting?" Jason asked curiously as they walked.

"As far as I can remember since I was eight." Nico answered easily. "that's about six years." Jason was jolted to be reminded again that this kid who was _covered _in scars and had dead eyes was two, maybe even three years younger than Jason. "You?" Nico's question broke through Jasons line of thought.

"I've been training as long as I can remember. It was part of the curriculum at the private school my father and stepmother sent me to. I think I must have started when I was four or five, but I didn't actually start trying until much more recently so we might be about even." Jason said hopefully and Nico nodded. "Are any of your scars from sword fights? You must have had a really hard teacher.

"Some of them are." Nico snapped stiffening visibly at the mention of his scars. Okay, so those were still an off limits topic of conversation, Jason noted that and changed the subject immediately. He started telling Nico about all the crazy things Leo had done recently, Nico relaxed as he listened and seemed interested so Jason continued with that, until Nico turned off the road.

Jason found himself in the graveyard quite suddenly. There had been trees and longer grass around it, so he hadn't even noticed it was there. Looking around he realized that it was like that on all sides, though the interior was somewhat looked after. It was mostly blocked off from outside to give privacy to any grieving or sword fights.

Most of the graves here were old, particularly those close the back of the graveyard, where the stones were so worn that you could no longer read the names that had been carved on them. Closer to the front where Nico and Jason were standing there were some newer graves.

Nico lead him to the back of the graveyard where a few markers were missing altogether, leaving an open space that would be perfect for their practice session. Now that they were here Jason was somehow less interested in fighting. It made him sad that the people buried here had lost their names, who would remember them now that there was no name to remember? The blank stones were like silence. Jason wanted to lean close to them so he could hear their whispers and remember them, but he knew he couldn't. When Nico drew his sword from it's sheath Jason did too.

Jason wondered how Nico had managed to find a sword that was made entirely of a black metal, but he had also wondered how his father had found such a gold one, that was obviously too hard to be gold. Nico lay his backpack and sword sheath against one of the graves that were gathered around like spectators. Jason followed Nico's lead, silently apologizing to the grave's resident and moving back into the circle. He wasn't sure if he should strike the "on guard" position of fencing, or one of the many starting positions for actual sword fighting. He waited to see what Nico would do, and as Nico centered his gravity into a fighting stance Jason was glad he hadn't struck a fencing pose. That would have seemed ridiculous.

Jason followed Nico's lead and then fell still, they both remained still as statues for a long moment. Eyes locked on the other bodies tense with readiness. It was Nico who made the first move, lunging at Jason. Jason blocked, the first clash of metal sent a thrill through his spine as it always did. He pressed back trying to use his strength and size to off-balance Nico, but as Nico dropped back into a practiced role it was Jason who was off-balanced. He stumbled as Nico rose gracefully to his feet and helped Jason, passed with a whack from the flat of his blade. Proving that it they had really been fighting Nico could have seriously injured Jason.

Jason gasped and regained his footing turning back to Nico, and circling more carefully this time. Nico's eyes followed Jason closely, but he didn't turn around to keep his body facing Jason, that could make a fighter dizzy. Jason lunged in with a controlled jab that would have just barely nicked Nico's side if Nico hadn't redirected it with a half moon sweep of his sword. He danced back away out of Jason's reach. Nico was faster than Jason, Jason had to get closer into Nico's guard so he couldn't use that there, Jason's superior size and strength would have more of an advantage.

Jason slid back and Nico followed him, leaping in with a side swipe on Jason's left, Jason blocked and stepped in trying to disarm Nico. Nico hissed as his wrists were twisted but didn't let go of his weapon, he struggled to free his sword and then slid back again. Jason was the first to attack this bout, faking toward Nico's left side and managing to deliver a blow with the flat of his blade to Nico's right.

They continued the back and forth for almost two hours. By that time they were both bruised and tired, Jason was pretty sure he had won but he wasn't all that certain. They hadn't been taking very careful note of points and it had been close. Jason went over and flopped down on the grass next to his bag, grabbing his water bottle from it's pocket on the side, and taking a drink before offering it to Nico who took it and drank gratefully. He sat down on the grass next to Jason and they stayed there in silence till both of them had caught their breath. It wasn't till then that Jason remembered to check his watch and suddenly leapt to his feet.

"I should have been home an hour ago to start dinner! I'm sorry Nico I have to go now!"

"Okay." Nico said his eyebrows raised as he watched Jason scramble to get his stuff together and dash out of the graveyard.

Once Jason was out of sight he slowed, he didn't know why because he really should have hurried home, but he went back staying out of sight and watched for a bit. As he watched Nico got up slowly, wandering among the graves he touched every stone he passed murmuring soft words Jason couldn't hear. Nico's moves seemed aimless but slow, then faster as they brought him to the newer section of the graveyard.

Once Nico was there he kneeled down on the grave with one of the largest markers in the graveyard. It was a stone angel, but Jason couldn't make out what the name on the stone was from the distance and he didn't want to come out. Nico had settled himself quietly on the ground, closed his eyes and leaned back against the grave. After a while Jason slunk back home to his worried mother, wondering who was under the grave Nico had paid such attention to.


	13. authors note

**A/N I'm sure some of you have heard of nanowrimo, for those of you that haven't it's national novel writing month where authors try to write 1,500 words a day on a story of their choice. I am participating in nanowrimo this year writing one of my original pieces. Because of this I will most likely not be posting any chapters through the month of november, I'm very sorry about this but I will get back to this fanfic after november. If you're doing nanowrimo as well my pen name is pastistoday on there as well and come be my writing buddies. **

**Good luck to all of you participating in nanowrimo I'll see you in a month**

**Past is today **


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